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For a while on Wednesday, the Maple Leafs’ season opener looked more like Baseball Night in the Centre of the Hockey Universe.

On the eve of the Blue Jays’ first playoff baseball game in 22 years, maybe it was no surprise that the biggest cheer of the evening — and the only extended standing ovation — was prompted by the big-screen appearance of the esteemed Toronto baseballers in attendance, among them Russell Martin and Marcus Stroman. Maybe it wasn’t a shock that the first period wasn’t over before the crowd broke into a chant of “Let’s Go Blue Jays!”

And this being Leafland, certainly it was only fitting that the home team’s first goal of its 99th season was scored 19 seconds into the second period — eons before the besuited corporate types in the sushi-and-champagne sections would see fit to interrupt their first-intermission schmoozing and return to their insanely expensive and tax-writeoff-subsidized seats. Club chairman Larry Tanenbaum was among the notably absent for James van Riemsdyk’s power-play net-front deflection, proving that even in moments of modest competence, the NHL’s punchline of a franchise can still find a way to make itself the object of easy mockery.

In other words: Let’s play ball. We’ll rejoin this Maple Leaf rebuild in progress when the local nine is finished mashing its way toward November.

Except that, even if Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to the Canadiens included plenty of indicators that underscored the low expectations and middling enthusiasm that has come attached to the first season of the Mike Babcock era, the on-ice product wasn’t anywhere near as painful to watch as Babcock had led the world to believe it might be.

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The Leafs, who’d spent the past few seasons being routinely and often grossly outshot by opponents, were a credible possession machine — out-Corsi-ing the Canadiens about 55 per cent to 45 per cent while out-shooting them 37-30. And there were enough flashes of promise from the blue and white — Morgan Rielly wheeling into open ice more than once, for instance, and the home team playing a pressure-sustaining, tight-checking style that had been long absent during Phil Kessel’s reign as Toronto’s best player — to give an optimist a full tank of fuel.

Except, er, that one thing. And as Babcock said: “There are no moral victories in the NHL.”

But the season’s first loss came against a Montreal team that has played in five playoff series in the past two seasons — four more than Toronto has managed in the past decade. And it said something, even if it was a small thing, about the Babcock effect.

“He’s definitely putting his mark on us. Guys are buying in,” Brad Boyes, the 33-year-old veteran right winger, had been saying before the game.

Babcock, the double Olympic gold medal winner, had his quibbles. He said he didn’t like how his team rode Wednesday’s momentum swings, how one turnover turned into three straight turnovers when the Leafs were at their worst. And, he said, “I’d like us to score better” — although the reigning league MVP in the opposing net was a factor in the final tally.

“Carey (Price) is pretty good,” said Babcock in deliberate understatement. “We had good structure. We did a lot of good things. We played hard enough. We can still get way better, obviously. But obviously the process is there, and we’re trying.”

Wednesday’s game came with the usual nods to Maple Leafs tradition, the 48th Highlanders piping in the season as they’ve done through the decades for the ancients. But there was a new wrinkle, the Leafs surrounding the centre-ice faceoff circle and offering their raised sticks in pre-game salute to the crowd. We’ll assume that gesture amounted to a public apology for last year’s disgraceful Stick-gate snub. And given these Leafs are now run by a bunch of micro-managers who speak endlessly about the vitality of the details, we’ll also assume the music cued thereafter was no coincidence. The song was called “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by a band called The Who.

When history looks back on this Leafs campaign, maybe there’ll be blank faces about the particular whos involved. Who was that No. 2 wearing a letter “A” on a Leafs jersery? Oh, that was Matt Hunwick, journeyman defenceman.

It wasn’t exactly a star-powered production of high-end theatre. On the first shot directed at the Toronto goal this season, Leafs starting goaltender Jonathan Bernier let in a peewee-level softie, the wrister by Montreal captain Max Pacioretty banking off the shrugging goaltender’s right shoulder and lofting over the goal line. And nobody was lauding Toronto’s defensive coverage when Canadiens centreman Alex Galchenyuk scored the winner with a little less than eight minutes left in regulation.

But the Leafs looked promisingly committed to the kind of smart, responsible hockey that Babcock’s spent a celebrated career winning with. And the sport’s first $50-million coach could even take credit for preventing a would-be goal with the sport’s first coach’s challenge.

Montreal’s Jeff Petry appeared to score a goal that would have made it 2-1 for the visitors midway through the second period. But given that the stick of Tomas Plekanec toppled Bernier before Petry’s shot, Babcock’s inaugural challenge — a new feature in the NHL rulebook — got the goal called back.

“It would be great,” said Boyes before the game, “if teams underestimate us.”

That’s not usually what happens at the Air Canada Centre on a buzz-inducing evening. The Leafs have been accustomed to getting the best efforts from opposing teams, especially GTA-bred exiles primed for a moment on the big stage.

That spotlit place, as it turns out, is momentarily under the command of a certain lineup of Sports Illustrated cover boys. This is definitely baseball’s time in the centre of the hockey universe, but let’s call the first sampling of Babcock’s time in Leafland a quality start.

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